Over the course of his 40-year career, John Godward rarely deviated from painting beautiful women in robes. This style made him famous and he was often praised for depicting the rippling movement of classical clothing with incredible accuracy. But his paintings weren’t universal critical hits, with many dismissing his idealized and historically inaccurate portraits as “Victorians in togas.” His own family despised his choice of career and disowned him after he moved to Italy in 1912, destroying all photographs that reminded them of his existence In his old age, Godward produced fewer and fewer paintings as his health deteriorated. His last known paintings are Contemplation and Nu Sur La Plage (Nude On The Beach), both of which were completed in the months before his death. Nu Sur La Plage is especially significant, because it marks a deviation from Godward’s usual style of classical scenes featuring fine clothes and marble surfaces. By then, Godward’s classical style was considered extremely unfashionable, but he apparently felt unable to change. In December 1922, he took his own life, writing in his suicide note that the world was not big enough for him and Picasso. (http://listverse.com/2015/07/18/10-final-paintings-by-artists-who-committed-suicide/)